Lynn Hershman Leeson
First Person Plural
19 May - 15 Jul 2018
Lynn Hershman Leeson, First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman, 1984–96 (in four parts), Exhibition view, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lorna, 1979–82, Exhibition view: First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, The Novalis Hotel, 2018, site specific installation in a hotel room in Berlin, Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, The Novalis Hotel, 2018, site specific installation in a hotel room in Berlin, Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, First Person Plural, The Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman (1984–96), Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York
Located in a large abandoned warehouse in the middle of Berlin-Kreuzberg, KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents the exhibition First Person Plural by American artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (born 1941, Cleveland, US), which brings together selected video works from the 1970s-90s as well as the installation Lorna (1979-83).
The focus of the exhibition lies on Hershman Leeson’s continuous engagement with identity, gender construction, sexual self-determination, and her progression of these ideas in close exchange with advances in technology, and science. The work challenges our relationship to reality and the possibilities that virtual reality, artificial intelligence as well as genetics are made accessible as a strategy of resistance. By doing so, she defies the limitation of censorship and elimination of the individual voice while also recognizing the dangers inherent in the question, who controls these new technologies.
The title of the show is pulled from Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman (1984-96) that sits at the center of the exhibition. In the form of a video confessional amassed over 12 years, the film records Hershman Leeeson’s struggle, transformation, and transcendence as her personal story unfolds before the camera and sees the mirroring effects of when the personal becomes political, becomes cultural.
Curator: Anna Gritz
Assistant curator and project management: Cathrin Mayer
Address: The Shelf, Prinzenstraße 34, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Opening hours: Wed–Sun 11 am – 7 pm, Thu 11 am – 9 pm
Admission: 5 €, reduced 3 €
Free admission on Thursday evenings between 6–9 pm
U8 Moritzplatz / Bus 140 Prinzenstraße/Ritterstraße
Partly accessible for wheelchair users
The focus of the exhibition lies on Hershman Leeson’s continuous engagement with identity, gender construction, sexual self-determination, and her progression of these ideas in close exchange with advances in technology, and science. The work challenges our relationship to reality and the possibilities that virtual reality, artificial intelligence as well as genetics are made accessible as a strategy of resistance. By doing so, she defies the limitation of censorship and elimination of the individual voice while also recognizing the dangers inherent in the question, who controls these new technologies.
The title of the show is pulled from Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman (1984-96) that sits at the center of the exhibition. In the form of a video confessional amassed over 12 years, the film records Hershman Leeeson’s struggle, transformation, and transcendence as her personal story unfolds before the camera and sees the mirroring effects of when the personal becomes political, becomes cultural.
Curator: Anna Gritz
Assistant curator and project management: Cathrin Mayer
Address: The Shelf, Prinzenstraße 34, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Opening hours: Wed–Sun 11 am – 7 pm, Thu 11 am – 9 pm
Admission: 5 €, reduced 3 €
Free admission on Thursday evenings between 6–9 pm
U8 Moritzplatz / Bus 140 Prinzenstraße/Ritterstraße
Partly accessible for wheelchair users